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A Crazy Thing to Think about

Clearly I need to dedicate more time to beefing up this blog, which I’ve neglected of late, due to school-related responsibilities. Mea culpa! The problem I face is this–my life right now remains routine and the Asian adventure with S. has yet to begin.

I should mention, however, that school is moving along well. I enjoy teaching and do not yet feel paralyzingly busy. My students seem reasonably engaged, and currently I have the energy to relay information with enthusiasm. Let’s see what happens later this week when my first set of essays arrives. At that time I may feel less pep, less passion, less poised when facing freshmen.

But, gosh, this process of writing seems agonizingly painful, slow, and tedious. Perhaps, it’s good for me to struggle in this regard. Maybe I’ll approach my students with more empathy and be better equipped to respond to classroom questions about the process of composition. Hopefully that will happen. At the moment, however, I plod by way through each post. At the moment blogging sucks.

Yet my office mate Amy said this morning that she thought I should write a book about this year’s experience–the experience of traveling in Asia and Africa while my partner responds to global disasters. Yes, the adventure would seem to lend itself to excitement and drama. Yes, I appreciate Amy affirming that I should do what I fantacise about doing. But writing a book would involve just that–writing. And, dear God, the whole process of compostion currently cripples me. To think this is the subject I’m supposedly qualified to teach. What a hoot!

However, S. just said something significant–namely that the real challenge for a writer is to take the ordinary details of life and make them meaningful, make them add up to something more than themselves. If that’s the case, these months at home should provide good practice in the craft of composition. The process of pounding out post after post should better prepare me for the task of actually writing a book. Perhaps, a year from now I’ll be begging for a bit more of the mundane. Now that’s a crazy thing to think about!